R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Respect.

The biggest point of contention between men and women. The root of all arguments, quarrels, misunderstandings. It is a well known fact, and yet nothing has changed in all these decades.

Men do not respect women. Period. They can love them, appreciate them, even idolize them, but they do not respect them.

By respectful men I don't mean those who open the door for us or pull out the chair for us, or pay us a compliment. That's just good manners.

Respectful men need to respect a woman's thinking and appreciate the fact that it can be different from their own. Women can think, as opposed to what most men believe, or are led to believe.

Why is it that every desire or every ambition of a woman needs to be justified with a 'logical reasoning'? Basically, a good enough reason, that makes sense in a man's world. Why can't she want something because she feels like it? Why is she questioned at every choice, every decision she makes? Why do men decide whether women are deserving enough or not?

A man, on the other hand, is given the benefit of doubt, even if he commits a cardinal sin!

It is unfortunate, but the society we live in has forced us to demand respect, to fight for it, even if we have done everything in our capacity to earn it. It is a fight in the hope to build a better future for our daughters, and a more compassionate one for our sons. A hope for a world, not of men and women, but of humans. And so, it goes on.

Anonymous

How do I inspire him
Me, an ordinary woman
Living an ordinary life
Dreaming ordinary dreams

How do I compete
With his expectations of me
With his idealism
With his perfectionism

How do I survive
His idea of love
His ambitions for me
His desires for another

How do I change
For the unchanged man
With his unchanged values
Without erasing myself?

Talk

Conversations...its a lost art, really. I don't remember the last time I had a long meaningful conversation with someone. It's like this...either I'm switched off when someone's talking to me, resulting in maybe, 5-10 mins of chit-chat. Or the person whom I wish to talk to is preoccupied. Even while on the phone, I'm multi-tasking. It's as if, conversing has become a waste of time, a by-product of the crazy humdrum of life. Social networking isn't exactly helping! When did it become polite to check my phone every 5 mins, in the middle of a 'conversation'? And yet, I can't help it. This constant need for stimulation is tiring, so when I'm off the phone, I'm exhausted, and still not satiated. Reading helps, but again, I'm not actually talking to anyone. It feels like although I'm surrounded by people, I'm living a solitary life. A life of typed letters instead of voices, emoticons instead of emotions and profile pictures instead of friends.

Maybe...

Sacrifice

Out of sight, out of mind

Out of body, in the grind

What you see is what you get

What you don't, you can't forget

Far far away is a heart that froze

Frigid fingers, a danger pose

Unchained melodies hang in the air

Dancing statues stop and stare

The ice queen has no tears to shed

Love is overrated, she said

Before she set herself alight

Lay wasted in the charcoal night...

 

Native nomad

The Drug

Sometimes when everything in my life seems to be going right, it's strange, really, that I begin craving for melancholy. My mind wanders to the past everytime, thinking about long lost friends, lovers...times gone by... And I think maybe if I could have done things a another way, my life would have been so different. Even though I love being what I am, and doing what I'm doing, its crazy to want to think like this. Its like I'm addicted to being sad, that happiness sits right in front of me, and yet I choose to elude it.